Whiting: Long Beach rises from recession

Blanca Soberanis and her daughter Kaysee Radilla walk past a mural near the corner of 14th Street and Peterson Avenue in Long Beach. BILL ALKOFER, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

LONG BEACH – I prowl the LBC checking out old haunts that in my younger days offered edgy adventure, the kind of places where you'd see a pimp with a hooker, where people guzzled straight from bottles, where gang members hung out.

Forget dive bars. I'm talking about the Los Angeles River bike path.

My mission: to find out what direction Long Beach is headed. My reason? There's a new newspaper in town – a sister publication to the Register called the Long Beach Register. I want to know why anyone would invest here. I cruised the streets three years ago when the recession hit so hard it looked like a knockout punch.

The house next to the home where my wife and I lived for 12 years and raised our twins had broken windows and trash in the yard. Foreclosed homes lined the street. The alley was so cluttered it looked like a tornado had swept through.

But Long Beach doesn't just surprise. It shocks. Once known as the birthplace for some of the most acclaimed gangsta rappers, the city is transforming even more than it's most famous rapper, Snoop Dogg, now Snoop Lion.

Consider just one of the city's goals is already well under way: becoming the most bicycle-friendly city in America.

People in Southern California tend to say that you've got to live in the Midwest to have caring, close neighbors. Wrong.

After I left the Long Beach Press-Telegram and started working at the Orange County Register, my wife and I waited nearly a decade to move to the O.C.

Why the wait? We loved Long Beach for its great diversity, exceptional restaurants, things to do. But more than anything, we loved the people.

Our neighborhood just north of I-405 was as close-knit as a college dorm. I came home to impromptu dinner parties. We trick-or-treated with neighbors – a Disney imagineer across the street once dressing as a giant globe with a glowing web when few knew what “www:” meant. We hid painted eggs in our backyard for hordes of squealing kids.

On this day, I cruise the streets with a bona fide expert, my daughter, Taylor. Now 25, Taylor was born at Long Beach Memorial Medical Center, grew up pedaling bikes west of the Long Beach Airport to what she and her brother called the “candy store,” spent four years at Long Beach State and now rents an apartment a dozen blocks from the beach while working at Linus Art Galleries.

We check out the “candy store,” a neighborhood market where someone was shot about a decade ago while using a now-extinct pay phone. A Yelp review describes the updated shop this way: “The best beer selection in Long Beach including many craft and micro breweries type of beer.”

Our old home is newly painted, landscaped. And the terror of a home that was there a few years ago is unrecognizable. Gray and white paint give it a Cape Cod appearance, perfect for the cozy beach bungalows that dot this city.

Taylor and I head down the alley. There is no graffiti, only nicely painted garages and carefully packed trash cans.

What's going on?

Sure, Long Beach's tourist areas have been great for decades. The Aquarium of the Pacific offers delightful penguin, shark and sea lion exhibits. The Queen Mary that my mother boarded for a trip to Europe just after World War II is a journey into early 20th-century elegance.

Second Street in Belmont Shore has grown into an even more wonderful spot for boutique shopping, dining and nightlife. And now there are something called “sharrows,” green-painted paths for cyclists which some O.C. cities are only beginning to consider.

But the real test of a city isn't its tourist areas. It's the neighborhoods, especially the challenged ones.

Blanca Soberanis and her daughter Kaysee Radilla walk past a mural near the corner of 14th Street and Peterson Avenue in Long Beach. BILL ALKOFER, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Vechat Muan, 29, works out at his home near the corner of Lewis and 21st Street in Long Beach. BILL ALKOFER, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Buddhist monk Sovann Eiv has his temple at 1622 Cherry Avenue in Cambodian Town. The temple, "Bon Pchum Ber Ceremony" has four monks. Eiv immigrated to Long Beach from Campot, Cambodia. BILL ALKOFER, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Jasmine Acevedo, 21, reads an email while waiting in the parking lot of a shopping center near the corner of Wardlow and Atlantic in Long Beach. BILL ALKOFER, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
ROTC cadet Travis Leela, 16, walks on 21st Sreet near Lewis on his way home from school at Long Beach Poly. BILL ALKOFER, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
The Virginia Country Club is one of Long Beach's best kept secrets. BILL ALKOFER, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
A couple walks by abandoned furniture near the corner of 21st and Lewis in Long Beach. BILL ALKOFER, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
A well-kept home sits at the corner of 21st and Lewis Avenue in Long Beach. BILL ALKOFER, LONG BEACH REGISTER
Jazmin Arreola, 21, works as a hostess at The Federal Bar on Pine Avenue in downtown Long Beach. Hostesses and bartenders dress as 1920s-era flappers. BILL ALKOFER, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Street sign at the corner of 21st Street and Lewis Avenue in Long Beach. BILL ALKOFER, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
The Los Angeles River bike path runs under Pacific Coast Highway in Long Beach. BILL ALKOFER, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
A strip mall has been built near the corner of Wardlow and Atlantic in Long Beach. BILL ALKOFER, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

1 of

User Agreement

Keep it civil and stay on topic. No profanity, vulgarity, racial
slurs or personal attacks. People who harass others or joke about
tragedies will be blocked. By posting your comment, you agree to
allow Orange County Register Communications, Inc. the right to
republish your name and comment in additional Register publications
without any notification or payment.